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This is a topic from the The 1980's forum on inthe00s.
Subject: 15-minute educational classroom shows
Written By: SammyReed on 09/19/02 at 11:34 p.m.
How many of you out there have ever seen those educational shows in school? They were on PBS stations a TV in the class was tuned to, and most of them were 15 minutes long. Most kids of the 80's were probably sent with the rest of their entire grade to the library at "that time" of the week to watch "ThinkAbout", and/or have seen the guy with the moustache drawing along with stories.
No one really thinks about this, but there are many more of these "classroom shows" floating around that most people haven't seen. I actually turn on public TV at home during school time to watch these shows sometimes. I have some of them recorded on tape.
Some of these shows, especially the AIT shows of the 70's & 80's, get to be unintentionally hilarious sometimes. Some are quite neat, such as Prof. Julius Sumner Miller's science show. And I think I'm in love with "Miss Patty" from the "Manuscript Writing" show that starts out with a cartoon "bookworm". When you think about it, these shows have quite a variety. And there are shows made as far back as the 70's that are still being run today. (Even though both the stations in our area quit running "ThinkAbout", darnit.)
If anyone out there knows about these shows, whether it's the above-mentioned or others you may have seen, I'd love to see your comments.
Subject: Re: 15-minute educational classroom shows
Written By: Benny on 09/20/02 at 01:44 p.m.
I can't remember the name, but there was the show that had a clay-mation type bug that was supposed to be a journalist or something. It had a little jingle for a writing club that went kind of like:
"The club, the club, the club-the club-the club!, use your pencil, use your pen, use it once - you're "in"!"
Holy Crap! I can't believe I remember that - I feel so ashamed! I remember we also warped the song to convey something along the lines of beating up your teachers and friends - it was awful.
Hey, don't forget about "The Letter People"!!
B.J.R.
Subject: Re: 15-minute educational classroom shows
Written By: mhfanclub on 09/21/02 at 04:12 a.m.
I remember an old show like that called "inside-out" that tried to teach kids about "life". The particular one I remember was of kids playing pranks on their neighbors. One kid climbed up a roof and dropped a water balloon down his neighbor's chimney. The show ended with a kid daring another kid to jump out in front of a car going down the road… but they didn't show the kid go splat. They always ended the show just before some type of "bad decision" to make the audience think.
Subject: Re: 15-minute educational classroom shows
Written By: SammyReed on 09/21/02 at 12:20 a.m.
Oh, yeah. "The Letter People". And "Mr. T."
"Tall,
my Teeth are so Tall.
Terrifically Tall.
The Tallest of all.
The Tallest you'll see.
I'm called Mr. T."
Mind you, this show was made in the mid 70's, and this song was done in Roy Rogers-style cowboy music.
And I refer to "Inside Out" as "My First Tales from the Darkside". Now there's a show called "Looking from the Inside Out", a sort of sequel to the original, which is a more normal show involving kids in an afterschool program in their school discussing a different problem each episode.
I'm a hopeless "trekkie" of these kind of shows, aren't I? (The Mr. T. episode of "Letter People" was episode 2. See what I mean?)
Subject: Re: 15-minute educational classroom shows
Written By: Screwball54 on 09/21/02 at 01:17 p.m.
I remeber one we had to watch every year called "You can do it Duffy Moon". Whenever he had to do something he thought he could not perform he would think "you can do it Duffy Moon", and he would be able to peform the task. I think it was longer than 15 minutes though.
There used to be a cd rom compilation for sale called "Our Secret Century" that had a lot of these short films. I do not own it, but I always wanted to buy it (It does include other stuff to). Unfortunately, it has been out of print since 1997.
Subject: Re: 15-minute educational classroom shows
Written By: ChrisPC on 09/21/02 at 11:03 p.m.
There wasn't much else to watch besides PBS at my house out in the country, so I watched all those shows too, including "The Letter People", and "ThinkAbout"! The shows had all kinds of goofy '70s stuff with the metric system, bad animation, and synthesizers. I also remember a big '70s guy doing stories in chalk drawings, I think it was called "Gather 'Round", and another show with a skinny, short-haired woman with a bunch of wild animals.
Almost every state and Canadian province made them for all of North America, the Canadian ones were really strange to me as a kid. I remember that show with the bug that worked for Channel 92, the club's motto was "Palabra Jot"!
I think that show was made here in my state and sent nationwide, like a lot of shows back then. They also made "Tomes and Talismans", an apocalyptic sci-fi show that taught you how to use a library, and "Just Around the Corner", a show about lower-class people learning work skills in a city, which starred Judith Light long before "Who's the Boss?"
I vaguely remember other locally produced shows, like one that had skits on economics, like an ice cream man, some puppets in a spaceship, and a girl named Pennywise. Also there was one about a girl and a talking computer, and one about an immigrant (the actress was a local DJ) learning English. I know they were local because the buildings are local landmarks!
My local station has phased them out until they rarely ever air anymore. I see blocks of some late at night for teachers to tape, but they are never on in the daytime anymore.
Subject: Re: 15-minute educational classroom shows
Written By: SammyReed on 09/22/02 at 10:12 a.m.
Quoting:
The shows had all kinds of goofy '70s stuff with the metric system, bad animation, and synthesizers.
End Quote
AIT sure had a love affair with the metric system, didn't they? When you saw little kids measuring in "hectares", you knew something strange was going on.
That was a neat trivia fact you gave us about Judith Light. On one of the "Before They were Stars" specials, they showed a clip from an educational show some actor appeared on before he became famous.
Subject: Re: 15-minute educational classroom shows
Written By: My_name_is_Kenny on 09/22/02 at 10:50 a.m.
What we got was 3-2-1 Contact.
We didn't have the Letter People as a show, but in kindergarten we did get them as large inflatables, and we had all their songs on vinyl too.
Subject: Re: 15-minute educational classroom shows
Written By: ChrisPC on 09/22/02 at 11:27 a.m.
Yeah, I think everyone watched 3-2-1 Contact. I still see it on Noggin once in a while. I really loved the English shows more than any of the Canadian ones, I really loved Doctor Who and Blakes 7. Now I have to get them on DVD if I want to watch them. :(
Subject: Re: 15-minute educational classroom shows
Written By: R.B.Bugg on 01/08/03 at 10:54 p.m.
:) for sentimental reasons(and for a laugh, so I half-expected to actually find anything), I did a search on the words "palabra jot" and then I found this message board. I read a few of the posts and a couple of the AIT kiddie programs I used to see were mentioned ("inside/out", "The write channel" , etc. and so many others I used to see....."all about you", "the guy with the moustache drawing along with stories", etc.....*but, ah, the memories, sigh*.... anyway, this prompted me to do another search on AIT programs, and I came across a site that is selling these programs, either singly @ $39.95 for each tape, or $479.00 for the entire series. as much as I wish I could see these shows again, I would not pay $500 to see them(there must be an alternative). there is a public tv station among my channel line-up which has aired a couple of these shows(in the wee hours of the night/morning), but not the ones I really wish I could see again. :'(
Subject: Re: 15-minute educational classroom shows
Written By: retrowfmk on 01/08/03 at 11:48 p.m.
We did the letter people, too. You get to put the letter sticker on the person..they were like cards. A was Miss ACHOO! Or something like that. R was Ripping Rubber Bands...LMAO.
The only thing I remember watching in school (1st grade) in the library was "Free to be You and Me" with Marlo Thomas, a young Michael Jackson, and a load of other people we know when they were younger. I LOVED THAT MOVIE!!
Subject: Re: 15-minute educational classroom shows
Written By: X on 01/09/03 at 09:46 a.m.
"Think About", "Tomes & Talismans", "Mission: Reading", "Khan Du", "Slim Goodbody", Louise McNamara...brings back memories. There was also this one short cartoon about this guy from a place called Eldoon who slipped into an alternate universe to a place called Noodle. The reference one poster makes to "puppets in a spaceship" might be the "Outerscope 1" segment of "Vegetable Soup" (an excellent show). Man, I could write about this all day.
Subject: Re: 15-minute educational classroom shows
Written By: SammyReed on 01/11/03 at 05:21 p.m.
I notice there are quite a few Louise McNamara fans here. I'm kind of a Genevieve Fricks man myself. :-[ (Those who have seen "Math Cycle" or "Drug Wise" will get that joke.)
Subject: Re: 15-minute educational classroom shows
Written By: Breaker on 01/12/03 at 04:27 p.m.
How about Zoom, did anyone remember that show?
Subject: Re: 15-minute educational classroom shows
Written By: R.B.Bugg on 01/17/03 at 07:28 p.m.
:)on my local public tv station, I managed to see 3 episodes of "trade-offs" last night(rather, I should say this morning because it was in the wee hours of the morning.*yawn*). for sentimental reasons(and in case I would never see them again), I recorded 2 of them(I didn't the 1st one because I caught it too late to begin recording). now, if they would only air "all about you" and/or "inside/out"..... one can only hope ;D
Subject: Re: 15-minute educational classroom shows
Written By: CatwomanofV on 01/18/03 at 10:20 a.m.
Quoting:
I remeber one we had to watch every year called "You can do it Duffy Moon". Whenever he had to do something he thought he could not perform he would think "you can do it Duffy Moon", and he would be able to peform the task. I think it was longer than 15 minutes though.
End Quote
I remember that one but I think it was one of those ABC After-School Specials.
Cat
Subject: Re: 15-minute educational classroom shows
Written By: SammyReed on 01/18/03 at 11:52 a.m.
Quoting:
now, if they would only air ... "inside/out".....
End Quote
Now that would be a heck of a show to watch at like 3:00 in the morning! :o
Subject: Re: 15-minute educational classroom shows
Written By: R.B. Bugg on 01/29/03 at 09:32 p.m.
I just wanted to point out that "the guy with the moustache drawing along with stories" is John Robbins and his program was titled "cover to cover".
another show I used to watch was titled "Ripples". it was similar to "inside/out".
Subject: Re: 15-minute educational classroom shows
Written By: resinchaser on 01/30/03 at 08:32 a.m.
In school we had to watch a show called Sol The Clown, he taught us the basics of French. And I used to watch The Edison Twins.
Subject: Re: 15-minute educational classroom shows
Written By: Pablo on 04/18/03 at 09:59 p.m.
I LOVED these shows..why?? I haven't a clue..but I liked them! Especially think-about. I last remember seing it circa 1990. They were funny without trying to be..like so much of the 70s-80s education experiments that tried to make us Gen Xers smarter since we were already so damn stupid. BTW the "Duffy Moon" movie..I remember that! EVERY year in school we had to see it at least twice.
Subject: Re: 15-minute educational classroom shows
Written By: The Skuz on 04/19/03 at 11:53 a.m.
Quoting:
I just wanted to point out that "the guy with the moustache drawing along with stories" is John Robbins and his program was titled "cover to cover".
another show I used to watch was titled "Ripples". it was similar to "inside/out".
End Quote
I remember that guy, and I'm still waiting for a Saturday Night Live parody of him or a submission of him on the Internet Movie Database. Anyhow, I probably would've learned more from these 15-minute educational shows on PBS than I would have from going to school, and entered adulthood with few if any school fights.
:P
Subject: Re: 15-minute educational classroom shows
Written By: Secret Squirrel on 04/21/03 at 11:27 p.m.
Quoting:
How about Zoom, did anyone remember that show?
End Quote
Yeah, along with "Zoom" I used to watch "Big Blue Marble" and "3-2-1 Contact". And of course, all those "School House Rock" quickies during saturday morning cartoonz. :D